The Ultimate Decision
by Sizzia
Summary: An insight to what happens after Elena wakes up in the hospital after her death.


**This is my very first fan fiction and a sad spin to what happens when Elena wakes up in the hospital.**

**Haven't really written anything before so I hope its not to cheesy or boring or full of grammatical errors (english is not my main language).**

**hope you enjoy! **

Elena opened her eyes and let out strangled gasps as trying to reach for air. It would be normal as the human body wants air to continue with its daily business, but as she gasped she felt empty as if...she didn't need it. Where was she? It was dark, hollow and it smelled of blood. An overload of emotions took over her as she didn't realize what was going on. Was this a dream? Her body felt as if it was paralyzed and cold but at the same time she felt so...alive. Everything was in a blur as she quickly tried to adjust to her surroundings. She expected to her reaction that her heart would beat fast and loudly, she felt so exhilarated, like all her nerves was on fire but couldn't connect to her heart.

"Elena?" A soft, worried, masculine voice asked. She recognized it, it was Stefan.

She quickly looked to her side and saw him, and his expression worried her. He looked like he had been crying for hours and he just looked so...defeated. He took hold of her hand, but he didn't feel so abnormally frozen like he normally did to her body, except when he had been drinking coffee. But she couldn't smell it at all.

What had happened?

"Stefan...w-where are we?" Her voice rasped.

Elena didn't recognize any of this. The last thing she remembered as her brain worked furiously to organize her memories was talking to Matt in her room about Damon and Stefan. She was lying on something hard and cold in a very dark room.

Stefan opened his mouth to answer but no sound came out, his lower lip trembled as he tightened his grip on her hand and more tears dripped down on his cheek.

"I'm so sorry, Elena...I'm so, so sorry..." he whispered softly. And he dipped his head so she couldn't see his face, and he was openly crying.

What was he sorry for?

Elena blinked her eyes, suddenly the room didn't seem so dark as before, it seemed brighter and she could hear everything from Stefan's crying as to what was going outside behind the locked doors in this room. She heard announcements on some sort of a radio and from the sound it seemed like she was in a hospital.

She slowly sat up, never realizing the hold of Stefan's hand.

"Stefan, look at me. What are you sorry for?" She asked, her voice barely louder then a whisper.

"I didn't know, if I knew...I would never...I wouldn't be able to..." He continued in a meek tone, not looking at her, as if he was to scared what would happen if he did.

Elena furrowed her brows together and sighed deeply.

"What happened? How did I get here, last thing I remember was being home with Matt...and..." At her last words, Stefan's head snapped up, looking bewildered.

"You don't remember?" his voice was so worried. That was her prince charming for you. Always concerned for her.

Elena started to feel anxious and confused and she tried to lighten up the situation, "remember I had a concussion. My memory is bound to be fuzzy." Stefan didn't look amused at all, in fact it seemed that he was pained by her words.

"Elena..."

As he was going to continue, the door banged open and both of them turned their head to the intruder.

Damon...he looked furious when he stared at his brother in explicit hatred.

"Damon?"

When she said this, his cold, blue eyes interlocked with her gaze and his expression immediately softened.

"Elena..." and with his vampiric speed he stood on her other side, he was looking at her with a penetrating gaze only Damon could do, "how are you feeling?" he croaked out.

"I feel okay. Shouldn't I feel okay?" She asked now looking between both brothers.

"You...you don't remember?" Damon asked her in a hushed tone. This was the second time she was asked this and it was enough.

"What is going on? Why are you both looking at me like if I died?" Elena demanded, feeling her anger rising to a boil.

As her words escaped it seemed like both brothers broke down. Tears was running down Stefan's face, and Damon looked heartbroken an he teared his worried eyes from her.

Elena got even more angry and worried, and the emotions seemed so more intoxicating, like she was going furious. She got surprised that she was that upset and didn't seem to have control over what she was feeling.

"Elena," Damon softly said, "you're in transition."

Elena's eyes went wide opened and she chuckled nervously. "and the real answer is?" she enquired.

"It's true." Said Stefan devastated.

She shook her head in disbelief. "How can I be a vampire when I was home all night talking with Matt and waiting for you two to come home?"

"Matt drugged you, Elena. He drugged you to keep you safe, he wanted to get you out of town...and when you passed...Wickery bridge, Rebekah stood in the middle of the road and the truck, you and Matt were in went in the lake. You drowned..." Stefan tried to explain as calmly he could to her.

Elena shook her head again, it couldn't be true, it wasn't true. But in one way...NO, it wasn't true.

"When you came in earlier, you didn't have a concussion. You had a bleeding on the brain, and you were dying, and Meredith injected you with vampire blood to heal it." Damon finished.

"I can't be a vampire..." Elena's voice cracked.

"Do you feel different?" The Elder Salvatore brother asked.

She snapped her eyes to Damon, trying to keep her emotions in check when she nodded really slowly as tears she didn't notice she had fell down on her cheek. He gave her a small smile of understanding.

"I don't remember what happened..." Elena confessed dejectedly, not wanting to surrender to the batch of tears threatening to slide past her lids.

"It will come back." He could barely look at her, but she saw the torment swarming those crystal blue eyes, the _ache_, and it stuck her speechless. She had a sense that he had a double meaning to his words. She didn't want to think about that, not on top of everything else. She looked at Stefan.

"Matt?" She asked.

A ghost of a smile passed his lips, "he is fine, he is resting in the hospital for the night."

"Good." she sighed deeply.

"We need to get her out of here, Stefan." Damon said harshly to Stefan. There was underlying hate in his voice as he talked.

"The smell of blood is bound to make her go mental, and we really don't need that on top everything else that has happened on this horrible night of failed heroics." he snapped.

Stefan nodded, still holding Elena's hand. "I will tell you everything, but we need to get you home."

Elena didn't really know what else to do then to agree, she slowly stood up from the cold metal she was lying on, and now as she stood up she realized she was in the morgue...She really died. She couldn't believe it, she didn't want to believe it. As she breathed unnecessarily through her nose the wave of a certain smell overflow her senses. Blood...and she wanted nothing more then to drink the red liquid and ache the burning she felt throughout her body. Her body was shaking and she again felt that adrenaline rush course over every single nerve in her body screaming at her to go take what she wanted.

Elena gulped and pleaded to Stefan, not wanting to stay in the hospital a single more moment, "get me home, please."

* * *

Elena was lying on top of the bed in Stefan's bedroom, she wanted to first go home, but thought of her poor brother Jeremy and decided she would go to the boarding house instead. Stefan had called all her friends, and her brother, and explained everything that happened. Except to Bonnie that wasn't answering her phone.

Stefan sat next to her on the bed, trying to determine what would be the best course of action to take next.

"I can't believe it..." Elena whispered, crouching her legs to her chin. Over the hour that passed, when the were outside, she saw and heard everything in the world so differently. She knew...she just had to accept the fact that she was now...a monster. And that was the hardest thing to do. She didn't want to be a vampire, that choice if she wanted to make it would come later and on her own terms. But now it never would. She would never be able to have a real family again, never be able to stay in a place to long, never be able to do...silly normal things – not that she had time for it as it was though.

Stefan stroke her hair and took her in his arms, just hushing comforting words in her ear that she eventually fell asleep in the arms of her dependable, safe, trusted vampire. She let him, she couldn't be worried about what Stefan would feel from this action, she just wanted to feel safe. Images of Damon kept popping in her head, and she worried about him too. He must be devastated. But she couldn't deal with him, not now, not with everything suddenly being so different. She was afraid of what she would feeling when she would see him in a less...awakened state and in more control of herself. She was afraid the the feelings she had for Damon would finally reach up to the surface and consume her if she let it and she had been trying so hard to push it under the blanket.

And there was something else she couldn't stop thinking about...Would she complete her transition? She was supposed to die in the lake, and she cheated death only to land there again. The circle came to a complete. And now...she was a vampire.

She didn't want to be a vampire, but she didn't want to leave Jeremy alone. Without Alaric and her, he would be completely alone, but then she thought that she might be the one hurting him, not being able to control her feeding urges once she did complete her transition and live in the house with him. Her stomach growled when she thought about it, and she felt sick with herself.

"Go to sleep Elena, you need your rest to decide what you want to do." Stefan spoke in barely audible whisper, and she knew what he meant, and she nodded slowly.

She was exhausted and crawled under the covers of an once very familiar bed that felt so strange to her now. But the thought of sleeping overruled her brain and she drifted slowly in an uneasy slumber.

* * *

"Damon?" The raven haired vampire chuckled at the voice, it was Stefan, good, old, bloody saint Stefan in all his brooding glory. He poured bourbon in his crystal glass to full and swallowed it all in one go.

"We need to talk about what happened tonight." Stefan continued, like he even had the audacity to talk to him about what happened on the worst night in his entire living and undead life.

"Do we really Stefan? Now what could have given you that idea?" Damon asked sarcastically back, holding in all the anger that threatened to escape every time he thought about everything that happened this night. He poured more alcohol in to his now empty glass and drank it in one go.

"She wanted me to save Matt, Damon. It was her choice." Stefan pleaded, like Damon would understand why he did what he did because Elena wanted it.

When Damon heard these words he crushed the glass in his hand, not caring about shards going in his hand. And he slowly turned to face his brother.

"You promised me to look after her, to make _sure_ she wouldn't get hurt, that she would be kept _safe_." Damon seethed to his brother. The only reason why he didn't want to stake Stefan at the spot in the hospital was because of Elena. She was clearly in distress and so confused, if he would lash out on Stefan there, it would upset her. Now though, he didn't care. His baby brother now chose to confront him about what happened.

Damon felt that his world had crushed under his feet, from when his closest friend died in his arms, realizing that the love of his undead life died along with him. Even if Alaric wasn't himself these last days he was crushed when he saw him turn grey, memories of their drunken nights at the Grill and at both their homes, spilling their hearts to each others kept flashing in front of his eyes. He never had a friend like Alaric before and he missed him already. He would have nobody to talk to now, and on top of that...Elena is now a vampire. The one thing she did not want to become. Damon felt tears prickle behind his eyes as he reminisced the phone conversation that he and Elena had shared just a few moments before she died. She chose Stefan, and it broke him more then he would ever be willing to admit. He sighed and focused on the unrelenting fury he felt for his brother at this point.

"You let her make her bloody deal with Elijah because you need to, of course obey Elena's every command because you just can't stand it if she would _hate _you if you would actually say the sane thing. Am I really the only one not blind enough to see that we couldn't trust an Original after everything that happened? But nobody listens to Damon right? Because I'm always wrong, right? I'm just an impulsive, crazy vampire that can't do rational choices..." He chuckled in monotone and took a new glass to fill up with bourbon again. He needed to be more then wasted if he was going to have this conversation.

"I'm gone one day, and everything goes to hell." He muttered loud enough for Stefan to hear and downed his drink again and sat down the glass on the counter.

"Damon..."

"YOU PROMISED STEFAN! REMEMBER WHAT I SAID TO YOU MONTHS AGO?" Damon shouted, letting all his emotions out in his cry and rushed with his vampiric speed and slammed Stefan against the wall, his arm crushing Stefan's throat.

"I would be the one to keep her alive even if she would hate me for it!" He whispered furiously.

"You k-know Elena wouldn't stand to lose anyone else. If she lost Matt as well, she would hate me, and her life and blame herself." Stefan coughed.

"You are weak...you could have saved them both! You are a bloody vampire. Why didn't you drag Elena, as you claim the love of your life first then go back for Matt, or better yet, take both of them at the same time?" Damon hissed. All he could hear was excuses.

"I respected her choice..." Stefan said in a strangled whisper as Damon's arm dug deeper into Stefan's throat.

Damon growled and pushed himself of Stefan, disgusted for his baby brothers' action.

"You are not in any position to try to redeem for what you did."

Stefan coughed and stared at his brother in shame. Damn right he should feel shame, but nothing would make up to what happened no matter how miserable Stefan felt. She was still a vampire.

Damon shook his head, and went up the stairs leaving Stefan in the living room. As he passed his brother's room the door was slightly opened. He knew he really shouldn't go in there, but there was a pull to go in to see if she was okay, if she needed anything, just to make sure that she was still in this world. He opened the door and peeked inside and saw her petite frame sleeping in the bed. In his brother's bed, the same sorry-ass-for-excuse brother that let her die. He leaned against the doorframe and saw her peaceful face and wondered if she would remember what had happened before her human life came to a close.

Damon sighed and felt a strange tightening grip in his chest as he also knew that now, she would remember what he compelled her to forget. He didn't want her to remember.

"_Maybe if you and I met first..."_

That didn't matter, he didn't want that meeting to make the choice for her, and he knew Elena would never choose him either because of that certain meeting either. She would just have a more insight of how she felt of when she first met him, he was certain she actually did find him interesting and mysterious when she first saw him. And his first confession of love to her on top of it...He wanted her to choose him for what he was, how he was in the present state, and she didn't. It was always going to be Stefan!

"_I can't think about always, all I can think of is right now..."_

He did truly felt pathetic, here she was now a vampire and her life completely changed and all he could think about as he saw her was about-

"Damon?" He was to lost in his own thoughts he didn't see that she was awake.

"Sorry, I was just passing through to my own room. I will leave you be." He said, forcing a smile on his lips as he was about to leave.

"Don't go." She said quietly. Her big doe, brown eyes looked at him in sorrow. He couldn't leave when she asked him like that. He was whipped to oblivion by this woman.

He walked carefully in, and closed the door behind him. He took the chair in the room and placed it next to Elena and sat down, his elbows to his knees.

"I remember what happened." Her voice was so raw, so full of emotions and all Damon could think of was to take her hand and rub it softly.

"It's okay..." He whispered to her, using his other hand to gently brush away her hair from her face and tuck it behind her ears. As soon his fingers came in contact with her skin, it burned and he ached to touch her more, to feel her against him, just to hold her.

He saw a tear fall from her eyes.

"It was my choice Damon, I wanted Stefan to save Matt..." She said softly, because as always she knew what he was thinking about, and what she needed him to hear.

"I couldn't lose anyone else, I couldn't let anyone else die because of me."

"He could have saved you both." Damon argued.

A small smile formed on her lips as she said, "I wouldn't let him make that decision."

"Why do you always have to be so heroic?" He stared down at her beautiful face, and was mesmerized by her beauty like he had been so many times before.

"It doesn't make me heroic to protect the people I love, Damon," she countered softly, her eyes never leaving his blue ones.

It was silent for moments, and Damon continued to rub her hand, and noticed that she hadn't removed it yet.

Her eyes went wide open for a second and he looked at her with a concerned expression, "Alaric? Is he..." Damon's eyes shut tight, and he nodded.

"He died while he and I were fighting." He said silently, and was surprised by how shaky his own voice sounded, and Elena squeezed her hand against his in comfort.

Her other hand reached for Damon's cheek and he felt that tingling feeling and he looked in her eyes again.

"Stefan didn't save me because I asked him not to..."

Damon opened his mouth to counter that but she shook her head, "In one way, he saved your life as well when he respected my choice," willing him to understand her, "Alaric would have killed you..." she finished as more tears fell down her cheeks, "and I think that I wouldn't be able to live with that." She exhaled deeply, and caressed Damon's cheek.

_I would die a thousand times over, if it only meant you would be safe and alive..._

"I hoped so much in the car that when Klaus was killed that you, Stefan and Caroline would not be descendants from his bloodline. When Caroline called and said that Tyler died, I was so scared to you all would die as well. We didn't know what would happen, and it was nothing we could do about it." She started to cry openly now, and Damon didn't know what else to do then to crawl in the bed beside her and hold her crying form to him.

"Shhhhh, it's okay. We are still alive in an undead way, but still alive and kicking." Damon half joked. Elena chuckled, "I'm glad you are alive," she whispered against his chest.

"I don't want to be a vampire, Damon." She cried after a few moments of peaceful silence. Damon closed his eyes to prevent tears to escape them. He knew on some level she didn't want to become a vampire. He lost her tonight, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to go on in this world if she choose to not complete her transition. If she would die tonight, he would follow her in dawn. He would give his own life, give up everything to save her, the consequences didn't matter, but this was different. He didn't want her to live an eternity in misery, not when he knew how strongly she felt about not wanting to be a vampire. She would make an excellent one though, he thought, if she didn't learn to control her hunger from the bunny eating baby bro that would probably turn her into a ripper. Damon thought back to the day when his love for her almost made her a vampire before and still regretted it to this day, and he would never force this fate upon her. This was her choice, not his or Stefan's.

"I keep thinking that Jeremy needs me and that he needs someone in his life, but in the end I might be the one that...that is the reason he can't be able to live a normal life like he should. I can't take that away from him, I can't risk it. What if I would snap and kill him by accident?" She ranted, her voice thick with sadness.

"I feel already out of control of everything I feel, everything feels so much stronger, brighter..."

"Elena..." he said softly, "I understand." He kissed the top of her head. He did understand, he didn't want to turn either, and was close to dying until Stefan forced him to feed.

"You are not going to try to talk me out of it?" She asked, not hiding the surprise in her tone.

"It is your choice." He choked.

_I want you to live, I want you here with me, forever if I could choose._

Elena slowly sat up, "I want to write a letter to Jeremy, a real goodbye, I don't want him to see me like this."

Damon nodded, and walked over to Stefan's desk and pulled out paper and an pen and handed it to Elena.

"Thank you," she smiled at him.

Damon forced to smile back at her. He looked out the window while Elena was sitting at the bed and writing her letter on the bedside table.

It seemed like forever but when she was done she stood up from the bed and with trembling hands she handed it to Damon.

"Can you give this to him?" She asked.

Damon took the folded paper, and nodded, "I promise." This was his last promise to her before he would join her in the true death, Damon never felt so devastated and at peace at the same time. He put the paper in his back pocket.

"Where is Stefan?"

"Somewhere brooding, probably feeling sorry for himself. Typical Stefan martyr stuff."

Elena looked like she was fighting the urge to roll her eyes, "he doesn't know my decision, Damon." And Damon knew what she meant by that, that she wants to be with her precious Stefan in her last hours. He was trying extremely hard to ignore where he felt repeatedly stabbed in his chest by emotional pain.

"He deserves a goodbye."

"And I don't?" Damon asked angrily, the words slipping out before he could stop them. The dark and damaged shadow that swept across his face might've almost been beautiful if it wasn't so heartbreaking, and Elena didn't know if she wanted to reach out and hold him or turn away so she wouldn't have to see it. She held her ground and let out a sigh, ignoring the spike of guilt that pierced her heart.

"Damon..."

"He let you die, Elena..." His electric blue eyes shook her to the core.

"It was my choice."

She looked like she was about to answer when they both heard the front door open downstairs.

Damon rushed down in vampire fashion, and Elena followed slowly behind him.

Stefan stood there with a blood bag in his shaking hands.

"She needs this."

"Elena is not going to complete her transition." Damon cut him off. Stefan stared at him in shock and disbelief and a half smirk appeared on his face.

"Of course she is, otherwise she is going to die."

"You made that happen, you are not decide her fate this time." Damon growled at his brother.

Stefan changed his gaze to what was behind Damon, Elena just walked up and stood next to Damon, her eyes fixated on the blood bag in Stefan's hand.

"Get that bag out of here." Damon snapped.

Stefan ignored his brother and stepped closer to the pair, "Elena...you need to drink this. I can't lose you again."

Damon stepped in front of Elena, his nostrils flaring, "you don't have the right to make that decision."

He could hear heavy breaths from behind him as the petite brunette was fighting her urges to not take the oh-so delicious blood bag.

"I can't..." She rasped out to the younger brother, "I don't want to be a vampire Stefan."

"Elena...please."

"Stefan, I don't want it. Please..." Elena pleaded. Damon heard and saw how she was fighting herself over this. She was so strong, and didn't even know it.

"Think about Jeremy, Caroline, Matt and Bonnie. They need you. They need their sister and friend." Stefan tried.

"That is what I have been doing all this time. But not with this, I don't...want...I can't be what they want me to be, I'm no longer that girl."

Stefan let out a faint growl and ripped the blood bag and the liquid started to drop to the ground and he threw the bag in front of Elena.

"You idiot." Damon spat at Stefan and took hold of Elena who just stood paralyzed with her eyes to the red pool forming in front of her.

"Get. Out." Elena suddenly said, her voice laced with fury. Damon felt his still, black heart drop to the bottom of his core.

_Stefan! Always saint Stefan!_

"Fine!" Damon's voice broke, and there was something about the way his voice cracked that made her gasp, "not you..." she whispered, and her gaze switched to Stefan, "I meant him."

"Elena," Stefan tried again.

"GET OUT! You are trying to force me to become something I don't want to be! I can't have you near me if you are just going to try to force blood down my throat." At the end of her fiery rant, she just almost collapsed. Her body growing weaker as she didn't feed and her stomach turning over in knots for being so hungry.

"Im sorry, Stefan. I wanted to say goodbye to you, but...if you can't face that, I can't be near you." Elena tore her eyes away from Stefan, the man she had loved, whom she was so sure that she loved now. She felt so hollow, and betrayed at this point by him.

"No, no, no. I can't accept that."

"Get out brother, you heard her wish." Damon walked in front of Stefan.

"You choose him?" Stefan asked incredulously to Elena.

She didn't move or say anything, her gaze kept flashing to the pool of blood in front of her, as she took a deep breath and stared at Stefan, she nodded.

Stefan sighed in defeat and flashed out of the house leaving Damon and Elena alone.

"I made him angry." She whispered.

"His stupid choice."

"Damon..."

He looked at her to continue, "get me out of here. I can't be in here anymore without...wanting," her eyes fell to the ground and he understood.

"Come with me." He whispered and took her hand.

With his vampire speed enough for the both of them, he took her to cemetery.

"Why here of all places?" The cemetery was dark and foggy and had an creepy ambiance to it.

"Thought you might want to say goodbye to those that wouldn't judge," Damon whispered and he saw her flash a smile at him.

She made her way to sit down in front of her parents, Jenna's, and John's graves and cried silently. He gave her a moment of peace and just stared out in the night, playing with his ring, turning it around his finger.

"Damon, can you just hold me?" She asked silently.

They sat down, he leaned against her parent's grave, and held her petite form against his, his chin resting on her head.

"You compelled me..." She suddenly whispered. Damon groaned, wishing this wouldn't upset her, to not make her run away from him, not now, not in this moment. He wouldn't be able to handle if she tore his heart out now.

"I had bits and pieces slowly returning to me, still can't grasp them fully, but your face is there...what did you make me forget?" She asked quietly, not angry or upset, which surprised him.

"Two of my not so strong moments," he whispered softly to her, "those memories doesn't matter now."

"Please Damon," and he closed his eyes in despair, not wanting her to get mad at him in her last hours.

He sighed, "I love you, and it's because I love you, I can't be selfish with you. I don't deserve you. But my brother does," he whispered hoping that phrase would unlock the memory to her. It pained him to say those words again, and it rekindled the undeniable ache that was spreading through his veins.

Elena gasped at his words, looking up in his electric blue eyes. She looked lost in thought and he figured the memory came back to her and she could puzzle it together.

"Damon..." She stroke his cheek softly, he understood she remembered that moment now, her eyes was filled with tears and she let a soft smile form on her lips.

"As for the other memory...well, it was before all of this." He let out a deep sigh, and closed his eyes as he rephrased the most important part of that memory.

"You want a love that consumes you, you want passion, an adventure and even a little bit of danger."

Elena sat still as his words replayed in her brain and her eyes went wider again.

She opened her mouth to speak but Damon couldn't bear to hear it. He shook his head, and she nodded in understanding.

He held her in his arms, waiting and enjoying these last moments of peace. He felt her becoming weaker and weaker and cursed himself for the wetness that damped his cheeks that he could taste the tears at the corners of his mouth.

_I will be joining her soon...there is nothing left after this...no point to everything._

"Damon..." she whispered heavily. He had a feeling this was it, she felt so weak in his arms, and he let out a very rasp "yes?"

She turned her head and grasped his face in her hands, and leaned close in, no words was needed to be spoken. This was her goodbye to him. He felt her lips come in contact with his, and he kissed her back with everything he felt. Passion, love, sorrow and despair. He felt that she was doing exactly the same. It felt like fire, having her pressed against him, and the painful reality that would follow once the bliss of this one peaceful moment would be over. Maybe if he kept her against him, she wouldn't fade...

"Thank you, for everything," She gasped as she slowly pulled away, "I love you Elena," He fought agains the growing pain in his chest, needing to spill what he felt for her, his voice was soft, quiet and his voice was cracking. Elena stared into his eyes sadly, "I love you, Damon." Those three little words he had longed so long to hear from her. So calming and yet chaotic. It changed everything and yet nothing. He needed Elena, in the painful and crippling way that stabbed at his soul and battered his brain, and he could see her fading. It was pure torture and hell seeing her in this state, and the agony clenching in his ribcage felt like he was about to burst. He knew she loved Stefan, and that she cared for him. He offered her a half smirk, "no you don't. But thank you for saying it." He caressed her cheek. Elena had problems having her eyes open, and Damon pulled her towards him again. When she was completely still, he brushed her hair away from her face and saw now that...his love was gone. Elena was gone. She was limp against him. His heart broke and the pain was beyond crippling. His body frozen as if she was still alive and just resting against him. Damon didn't stop the tears now, his body shaking so heavily until he finally cracked and cried, until the first ray of sunlight came in view.

He made a promise to her, and reached for the folded paper in his back pocket. He looked at it and reached for his phone and called Jeremy, and told him to come to the cemetery. He sounded so worried but Damon couldn't care less. When he hung up, he placed the paper in Elena's jeans pocket still so it was very visible. He knew Jeremy would find it. The sun was coming higher up and Damon sighed and let out a few shaky breaths. He didn't want Elena to burn, not that he knew if she still would since she was gone, but he wouldn't risk it. He slowly took the ring of his finger and placed it on Elena's ring finger. He was still in the shadows but could see the sun coming closer and closer to where they were. He had to let her go, he didn't want to burn on top of her. He lay her down in front of the grave and back a few meters, staring at her until he felt the hit of warmth sizzling in his neck and going up to his head. The pain was a relief, numbing the agony that took over him, he kept his eyes fixated on Elena – his last moment of peace as he felt his own life fade away.

The End.


End file.
